The UK’s first transgender prom queen has described how she was left “broken” when she was targeted by internet trolls.

Lori Beynon was bombarded with hate messages branding her “ugly” and a “freak” who should be “killed with fire.”

But the 16-year-old insisted she did not regret going public last July about her crowning at Cardigan Secondary School, when she was given the title by her fellow pupils and presented with a crown and sash.

“It was amazing for transgender visibility but not so much for me,” the schoolgirl said of the headlines that followed.

“It happened so fast, man. I remember sitting up all night refreshing the comments over and over.”

“It broke me at the time. Transgender or not, I’m only 16 and hearing that s*** was hard to hear, as I’m sure you can imagine. It wasn’t all bad, though, I did get probably as much positive comments as I did negative.

“But to be honest they weren’t really positive in my eyes. They were things like ‘You’re so beautiful, you’ve come so far!’ But I don’t really think that’s something to congratulate.”

Lori says she knew no harm was meant by those comments but believes “everyone is beautiful”.

She says her crowning was 'amazing for transgender visibility but not so much for me' (Image: Lori Beynon)

(Image: supplied pic)

“Girl, boy, animal, cloud, I really don’t give a f*** about beauty or the standards that come with it,” she said.

Despite that, Lori says she did try “to look like the perfect girl” during her transition. She said that was so no one would bully her.

“But still, when I did that, blinded uneducated people on the internet still managed to find a way to criticise me, so now I just do what the f*** I wanna do and dress however the f*** I want and not apologise for it,” she said.

Lori began transitioning two years ago after coming out to her mum by text. She says she has become more open-minded since being attacked by trolls.

“I now know that words can hurt a lot,” she said.

“It’s shaped me to be the person I truly am and not the person I thought I had to be. It’s helped me realise that the world is so damaged and needs to change.

“One of my favourite quotes is ‘You can’t get up 'til you’ve been knocked down’ and that inspires me. I feel inspired every day, to keep going and growing.”

Lori, from Cardigan , started researching transgenderism when she was 10. Despite transitioning to become a girl, she didn’t “really feel tied to a gender”.

“I feel that is more of a spiritual thing, and that my body should be one of a female for me to feel peaceful,” she said.

“On the other hand, though, my gender expression is very fluid. I don’t feel obliged to present myself in a specific way.

“The thing about gender fluidity is that you kind of feel everything and nothing at the same time. I don’t necessarily identify as gender fluid though, I don’t feel like I need a label to define me.”

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

Click to playTap to play

The video will start in 8Cancel

Play now

Lori was astonished by the column inches she got when she was named the UK’s first ever transgender prom queen.

And though it was reported that it was the "the best moment" of her life, Lori says that's not actually how she felt: "It wasn't - I felt like I had to say that for a good story."

She admitted it was "cool" but did not think it was important.

“If I had known so many people would be talking about me at the volume they were, I would have worded the interviews so differently and spoken more about the important s***, like transgender suicide rates, how I and so many other transgender people struggle with depression and mental illness every day, how so many of the homeless population are LGBT and so much more,” she said, adding that trans people face discrimination daily.

Lori when she was a young boy. She changed her name from Luis two years ago and said people should do what makes them happy in life (Image: supplied pic)

Read More

“They are laughed at, bullied, kicked out of their homes and in some cases murdered for being who they are,” she said, urging people “to be your f***ing self”.

“You can try and blend in, and be what society thinks is normal, and you will get deemed as boring or basic,” she said.

“Or you can stand out and do what makes you happy and not listen to what people have to say. Because, no matter what, someone’s going to have an opinion on what you do. Everyone has a different outlook on life. Make yours a positive one.”